Opinion: With rural broadband coming, I'm already mourning JOMO: The joy of missing out

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Voices Across America

Opinion: With rural broadband coming, I’m already mourning JOMO: The joy of missing out



The author helps move cattle in southwestern Colorado. (Maddy Butcher)

By Maddy Butcher
Yesterday at 5:22 p.m. EST

Maddy Butcher is the author of “Horse Head: Brain Science & Other Insights” and director of the Best Horse Practices Summit.

Thanks to the $65 billion allocated for broadband expansion to rural America in the Biden administration’s infrastructure bill, the convenience of connectivity will finally be available to country-dwellers like me. The laying of countless miles of fiber-optic cable is a prelude to more cell towers and better, more widespread phone reception.

I know that perpetual connectivity will be, on the whole, a good thing in southwestern Colorado. But I can’t help already mourning what I think of as JOMO — the joy of missing out.

{snip}

I’m wary of more connectivity, for a variety of reasons.

One big concern about a wired-up countryside is deteriorating relationships — not between people, though that’s probably inevitable, too, but between people and nature. Acquaintances in other rural parts of the country express similar worries.

{snip}



The author's dogs at dawn in Dolores, Colo., with La Plata Mountains in background. (Maddy Butcher)

{snip}

Out here, being real-world handy and resourceful is essential. Most of my friends have more skills, strength and savvy than I do, but I can still sew, camp, fish, swing a hammer, change a tire and fix a fence. You pay attention to the weather, not Weather.com. You develop a feel for the day, for the seasons, for the air and the animals, because it not only elevates your life but, practically speaking, it matters. If you are riding off the mountain on horseback in the dark, that “feel” is learning to drop the reins because he knows the way home better than you do. It’s our version of hands-free wireless communication.

[SWBTATTReg]

1. The joy of missing out? Ever hear of the 'off button', or simply not logging in?

Just because one has access doesn't mean that one misses out on stuff.

[tanyev]

2. IKR? Pretty sure rural broadband doesn't come with minders forcing them to constantly use it.

[Bettie]

3. If you don't want the internet

then don't hook up to it.

It really is that simple. If you don't want it, don't get it.

[catrose]

4. And those of us who work from home or have school children

Desperately need it.

[Bettie]

5. Exactly, the point is that it will be there

for those who want or need it.